December 2

People often ask me what John does.  Well, besides doing most of the cooking and all the running around and staring in the odd pantomime here and there, John mends pianos. He is, however, not a piano tuner.

Many years ago, when John was going to start college, he had a choice: he either trained to be a teacher or to fix musical instruments.  Needless to say, he became a teacher. I don't think it's a choice he necessarily regrets, but he is very glad he no longer teaches.  Our years in Zambia successfully managed to convince him that teaching has lost its way.  Students are no longer taught to question or to think and The Syllabus has become paramount.  

If you think that John wouldn't get much work in Bulawayo fixing pianos, think again.  Bulawayo, as his mentor, Tony, the piano tuner from Botswana, will tell you, is the graveyard of pianos.  John is often called out to give his opinion on whether a certain piano could be restored or not. Some people have left their piano outside in the wind, rain and sun for years on end and then suddenly wonder if it is possible for it to be restored.  I went with him once to see a piano at a local golf club.  The piano had obviously been used for Friday night singalongs at one stage, but for the past ten years, it had stood in a neglected corner.  A mummified rat fell out the bottom and most of the keys had been eaten away, either by the rat, or by woodworm.  It was a wreck, a complete wreck, but the club's manager was convinced it could be brought back to life and then sold for thousands.

Another woman pleaded with John to restore her mother's piano which had been kept in a garden shed. John kept insisting it was not worth his time or effort as it would literally have to be rebuilt.  He advised she go to the auction and try and pick up one there. She still messages him from time to time to see if he has changed his mind.

There have been some interesting pianos though.  One belonged to a holocaust survivor and another belonged to a couple who had eloped to Rhodesia from Cyprus in the 1950s. Most recently, John partly dismantled a baby grand that had to be transported to Zambia. Every piano tells a story.  We should know. We have three.